In a retrospective study of 100 patients with pleural effusion the final diagnosis was tuberculosis in 49, malignancy in 43, malignancy with tuberculosis, bacterial infection, hydrothorax with cirrhosis, reaction to pneumothorax in one each, and unknown in 4. Most of the effusions analysed were exudates (94%). Pleural biopsy was diagnostic in 46% of tuberculous effusions (13/28) and 67% of mali...

A 22-year-old Asian male presented with fever, non-productive cough, right-sided pleuritic chest pain and was found to have a large right hydropneumothorax. A chest tube was placed. Pleural fluid analysis revealed a lymphocytic predominant exudate and he was subsequently started on four-drug daily anti-tuberculosis therapy (isoniazid, ethambutol, rifampin, pyrazinamide). Pleural biopsy revealed...

Chylothorax or chylous ascites is rare manifestation of tuberculosis. We report a case of simultaneous chylothorax and chylous ascites due to tuberculosis. A 17-year-old girl was admitted with fever, abdominal distention and dyspnea. Chest and abdominal computed tomography revealed bilateral pleural effusion, multifocal nodular consolidation on both lung fields and copious ascites and multiple ...

15% (this means that 85% of the subjects with a positive test result will not have a TPE).9 The incidence of TPE is generally associated with the regional prevalence of tuberculosis.2 In the United States, only a small proportion of exudative pleural effusions are caused by tuberculosis.10 In TPE, a lymphocyte-dominant pleurisy, ADA is released in the presence of live intracellular Mycobacteriu...

Chylothorax in an adult is a rare cause of pleural effusion. Mycobacterium tuberculosis may cause chylous effusion, but usually in association with extensive intrapulmonary involvement. A case of chylothorax is presented in which M tuberculosis was isolated from the pleural fluid and was the only intrathoracic manifestation of tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND The diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis (TB) remains to be difficult. Interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) is a promising method for diagnosing TB in low TB burden countries. The release of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) by T lymphocytes increases at a localized site of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen. This study aimed to examine the clinical accuracy of T-SPOT.TB on pleur...

BACKGROUND Pleural biopsy is usually considered important for the diagnosis of pleural effusions, especially for distinguishing between tuberculosis and neoplasia, even though tuberculous pleural fluid contains sensitive biochemical markers. In regions with a high prevalence of tuberculosis, and in patient groups with a low risk of other causes of pleurisy, the positive predictive value of thes...

INTRODUCTION This study evaluated the performance of an in-house nested-PCR system for the detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in pleural fluid, blood and urine samples from pleural effusion tuberculosis patients by health services physicians in Pernambuco, Brazil. METHODS A prospective double-blind study with 37 hospitalized patients of both sexes, aged over 15, was used to i...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is preferred over conventional methods, such as pleural biopsy, in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with pleural effusion. Considering that Imam Khomeini Hospital is facing a large volume of patients with pleural effusion of unknown origin referred from other centers, the present study was conducted to investigate the role of...

BACKGROUND Fibroblast specific protein-1 (S100A4) is related with many fibrotic diseases, but its role in the pathogenesis of pleural fibrosis has not been fully elucidated. Then we aim to investigate the expression and effect of fibroblast specific protein-1 (S100A4) in pleural tuberculosis and, subsequently, pleural fibrosis. METHODS The expression of S100A4 in pleura was examined in 30 pat...